Lee led the team of researchers who tested every single child on the planet and ... OK, that's a lie. They really tested 1,200 children ranging in age from 2 to 16.

Researchers placed young children in a room with hidden cameras and placed a soft toy behind them. While researchers left the room, the children were told not to look at it. In nine out of 10 cases, the cameras caught them peeking.

Older kids were given a test, and were told not to look at the answers printed on the back of the paper.

One of the questions was, "Who discovered Tunisia?" Researchers gave the fake answer "Presidius Akeman." Kids peeked and gave the made-up answer. Asked where they got it, they said they learned it in history class.

"Parents should not be alarmed if their child tells a fib," Lee tells the Telegraph. "Almost all children lie. Those who have better cognitive development lie better because they can cover up their tracks. They may make bankers in later life."

Lee tells the newspaper lying involves multiple brain processes. You have to mentally collect sources of information and manipulate the data to your advantage, which requires a great deal of thinking and reasoning.

Thus, Lee says, lying is linked to the development of brain regions that allow "executive functioning."

The Daily Telegraph reports the majority of children tested told lies, but the smartest kids told the best lies.

At the age of 2, the study concludes, 20 percent of children will lie. This shoots up to 50 percent by the time kids hit 3. By the time they reach 4, according to researchers, at least 90 percent of them lie.

When puberty rolls around, almost all of them are lying. They don't start to fall out of practice, according to the study, until they hit 16.At that point, about 70 percent of kids are still lying.

By the time they reach adulthood, Lee tells the Telegraph, most people are confining themselves to little white lies to spare other people's feelings.

Lee tells the newspaper parents shouldn't worry too much if their small child tells lies. Researchers conclude there is no link between telling childhood fibs and cheating on exams or becoming a professional liar later in life.

And strict parenting can't keep kids from lying, Lee tells the Telegraph: If a kid's going to lie, he's going to lie. Lee suggests catching children in their lies and using it as a "teachable moment."

"You shouldn't smack or scream at your child, but you should talk about the importance of honesty and the negativity of lying," he tells The Times of London."After the age of 8, the opportunities are going to be very rare."

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So..."Parents should not be alarmed if their child tells a fib," Lee tells the Telegraph. "Almost all children lie. Those who have better cognitive development lie better because they can cover up their tracks. They may make bankers in later life."

Don't you think this might explain why our politicians and BANKERS are corrupt! Do we want our children to grow up to be highly "successful", dishonest, deceitful, and corrupt professionals? Don't forget, professionals that exercise deceitful practices often run afoul of the LAW and end up in the FEDERAL PEN!Not my kids! They get in more trouble for lying than if they tell the truth! HONESTY IS STILL THE BEST POLICY! And INTEGRETY is necessary for a GREAT AMERICA to extist!

Don't you think this might explain why our politicians and BANKERS are corrupt! Do we want our children to grow up to be highly "successful", dishonest, deceitful, and corrupt professionals? Don't forget, professionals that exercise deceitful practices often run afoul of the LAW and end up in the FEDERAL PEN!

COULDN'T HAVE PUT IT BETTER IF I TRIED. Thank you for bringing it to people's attention now for the jerk that had that to say about lies. My parents told me the same thing. IF I lied I got in trouble and sooner or later my mother would find out & boy did she ever. She never would tell me and then when I was in my 50s and asked her she's say "oh Carolyn to much time has gone by now I don't remember" so I never did find out how she found out!

The true test of intelligence is whether you can be highly successful without lying or stealing. That is what I learned as a kid and I stuck to it pretty well. I never lied to "get ahead," only very rarely to save my ass. I have done well in life, but there are plenty of people who have taken advantage of my honesty, taken credit for my work, and just outright BS'd their way to the top. I don't really care because I am peaceful. I know that what's mine is mine. Money isn't everything.

And I think it's idiotic that they refer to toddlers as "lying." They are simply telling stories. They don't need to "tell the truth" at that age. They aren't seriously trying to mislead. Maybe around age 4 they need to learn that fibbing is misbehavior.

The truth shall set you free. Lying leads to stress, guilt and more lying. My children know that lying will get you twice the punishment than the truth and that lying is worse. It is not cute. It is not a sign of intelligence. It is bad behavior.

Just because you people are behind the times in scientific studies, doesn't mean you reflect the majority who see the logic in this article.

The main point is that lying is a definitive mental process that when honed, manipulates reality for the user. For you people out there who can't understand the previous sentence, it means that you need to think really, really, really hard to come up with a lie that is believable. Ergo, you need to be really smart in order to easily deceive someone.

If a child can come up with a complete lie that goes over the parent's head, it's a sign of your child using a complex sequence of information right on the spot. And before you whine about how it's a 'very bad' thing to do, you should at least be slightly amazed at how the process works before you start bashing heads with traditional values. Because that's completely missing the entire point of this article.

Is it a bad behavior? Sure. But that doesn't stop science from discovering a child's cognitive potential. Like I said previously, you people are definitely missing the point on this.

Who wrote this the Obama administration? The line," Those who have better cognitive development lie better, because they can cover up their tracks. They may make bankers in later life." What liberal crap is this? Because they lie they might be bankers? How about they might be politicians? They might be Progressives! Those would be true!

It's more than thinking up a good lie; it's being able to tell the lie with such confidence and charisma that the listeners are inclined to believe it without analyzing whether there might be some BS mixed in there.

My 3yo has my friend convinced she's psychic because she'll hear the garage door open and say "that's so-and-so coming home" and be right 50% of the time. She says it so confidently (with the facial cues and body language) that when she's right, my friend is all "wow, how did she know that" and forgets the other 50% of the time when she's wrong.

I am not thrilled about this. I value honesty and I don't want my kid to be learning that BS will get you ahead faster - even though it often will. (I'm also not crazy about my kid being recruited for psychic readings, but that's another story.) Instilling the value of honesty may be an uphill climb with this kid.

I can totally see the "point" of this article, but how far down the toilet have we gone as a society when experts are encouraging us to mentally pat ourselves on the back for having raised an accomplished liar? I, personally, want my children to be SMART enough to tell an effective lie. . . and WISE enough NOT to.